You might think that finding the right backpack is a simple affair. But you’d be wrong.

When last I needed a mid-sized pack — mostly for international travel and the occasional weekend trip — I started online. I narrowed it down to a couple models. It took visits to two stores to try on these packs — to feel their heftiness, to see their real (not as-seen-on-a-computer-screen) colors, to imagine them carrying weight, to unzip the zippers and see what completely unnecessary pockets hide beneath the burly facade. It worked, and eventually I found the right mid-sized back.

But somehow when I was looking at the Topo Designs site — which features an assortment of packs, all made in a LEED-certified shop here in Colorado — I knew that their mini mountain bag would be a good fit for an everyday bag.

Travel and OutWest editor Kyle Wagner grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Lake County, Ill., and Naples, Fla., before moving to Denver in 1993, where she reviewed restaurants for Westword before moving to The Denver Post in 2002. She considers the best days to be those that involve her teenage daughters and doing something outside, preferably mountain biking or whitewater rafting.

Dean Krakel is a photo editor (primarily sports) at The Denver Post. A native of Wyoming, he has authored three books, "Season of the Elk," "Downriver" and "Krakel's West." An avid kayaker, rafter, mountain biker, trail runner, telemark skier and backpacker, Dean's outdoor adventures have taken him around the world.

Douglas Brown was raised about 30 miles west of Philadelphia in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he spent a lot of time running around in the woods and fields (where he hunted and explored), and in the ocean (where he surfed and stared at the horizon). Now he lives in Boulder and spends as much time hiking, running, skiing and boarding the High Country (and the Boulder foothills) as possible.

Ricardo Baca is the entertainment editor and pop music critic at The Denver Post, as well as the founder and executive editor of Reverb and the co-founder of The UMS. Happy days often involve at least one of these: whitewater rafting, snowshoeing, vintage Vespas, writing, camping, live music, road trips, snowboarding or four-wheeling.